


When Stars Collide

by sylviiam



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: ANTIxReylo, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Smut, F/M, M/M, Roommates, Sharing a Bed, home bound, seperated by a thin wall
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:34:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23943169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sylviiam/pseuds/sylviiam
Summary: Rey is immunocompromised and homeless thanks to her recent fight with her grandfather.When the virus hits, her ability to couch surf between friends is impended, forcing her to search for alternatives. Thankfully, her boss is willing to rent out the spare bedroom in her holiday townhome for a low price until Rey can get back on her feet.However, the room comes with a catch: Ben fucking Solo. A resident asshole and her newest roommate.Oh, and did she mention he was an ANTI? In his spare time, he runs a podcast called When Stars Collide spouting off nonsense about Star Battles, his hatred for the main character Ren (he thinks she's a Mary Sue), and how awful the popular ship, Renlo, is.Rey is an avid Renlo fan.As tensions erupt between the two and passions collide, they challenge each other to a 30-day marathon where each will try to prove their side correct.Can Rey convince Ben to join the dark side of Renlo, or will Ben show her the "flaws" of the popular pairing?
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico, Finn/Rose Tico, Kylo Ren/Rey, Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey & Ben Solo, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18





	1. Prologue

Ever since the virus hit, Rey had been scrambling to find herself a place to stay. Given the fact that she was immunocompromised (thank you asthma), couch surfing between her best friend’s house was out of the question. 

Finn and Rose had finally moved in together successfully eliminating two of Rey’s options as Rose’s apartment had been quickly rented out to someone else at her biotech company, and Finn’s apartment was just large enough for two people. 

Not three. 

So, when her boss, Leia, had offered to let Rey rent out the spare bedroom in her townhouse for barely a hundred dollars a month, Rey had agreed. During the pandemic, if she couldn’t make her bills, Leia said she would waive them. 

It all sounded too good to be true, and it was. 

Because Leia rented out the other bedroom to her only son: the insufferable, misogynistic asshole: Ben fucking Solo. 

And yes. He was a fucking misogynist. Barely a week into sharing the space, she’d overheard him recording his “world-famous podcast” (his words, definitely not hers) all about the actually famous movies Star Battles, how the popular pairing, Renlo, was trash, and how Ren, the title character, was a Mary Sue. 

She’d ignored it, for the most part. When his ravings started in the distance, deafening without her headphones, she’d scream into a pillow as she texted Rose a flurry of not-nice texts in a bid to bite her tongue. 

But Rey was getting tired of biting her tongue.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben can't stop arguing, and being cooped up 24/7 isn't helping. While Ben has a business call to make, Rey goes to talk to her friends, but when she gets too loud, Ben takes revenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends! This is just a fun little opening to give you guys a snapshot of their miserable life before they make it to their bet. I spend a lot of my free time working on personal writing, but I plan to try to update this every Friday! 
> 
> I hope y'all enjoy it! 
> 
> Also, for any writing-related content, my twitter is @KassandraGail_

Chapter 1

Rey bobbed her head to the music as she scribbled notes in her notebook for the latest novel idea that had struck her in the middle of the night, awakening her from a deep slumber. It was a cross between Phantom of the Opera and a ghost story she’d watched on youtube before she fell asleep about strange staircases in woods. With her other hand, she shoveled a spoonful of cereal into her mouth. 

Ben shot her a despairing look as milk dribbled down her chin and onto the marble countertops. 

His lips moved as if he were speaking, but Rey couldn’t hear him over the blast of her music. She imagined he was saying something like:  _ blah blah blah my mother’s countertops!! Incorrigible troll!! Return to your bridge.  _

Rey flashed him a tight-lipped grin as she yanked the paper towel from his hand and ran it over her mess. It wasn’t like she didn’t clean up after herself. Their shared townhome was spotless. Immaculate really because Ben preferred absolutely zero evidence of her living there. 

She glared up at the dark-haired man with his splattering of freckles that she’d once found endearing before she actually met him. Pushing herself to her feet, she slammed her notebook shut and gathered her things. 

As she passed, he took out one of her earbuds though he looked at his hand with disgust afterward. “Really?” he wiped his fingers against his suit pants, his white button-up shirt straining against his chest. “Wired? You can somehow bribe my mother into giving you a free room, but not wireless headphones?” 

Rey shrugged as she rinsed off her bowl and placed it unceremoniously into the dishwasher. “That room costs a good portion of my paycheck.” 

He rolled his eyes. “Can you take your annoying self to the room for the day? I have a work call.” 

“And?” 

“And?” He shot her an incredulous look, gesturing towards the living room. “I would like to take it out here without you walking around in the background.” 

Rey was determined not to let him bother her, though admittedly a part of her liked seeing him so riled up. He was so damn tall. And angry. And passionate. 

Too bad his passions were aimed in the wrong direction. 

She shrugged again. “Afraid your co-workers will discover your love for Star Battles and your hatred of women.” 

“For the last time, I don’t hate--” Ben stopped, his nostrils flared. “Just go to your room.” 

“What? Like a child?” 

“If you want to act like a child, of course, like a child.” 

Rey pursed her lips, anger making her breath come faster. She stared at him hard, and then, without a second glance, plopped her ass onto the couch. “I think I’d really rather stay. I could sing about how big of a douche--” 

Ben shot her a look and she quieted, taking in the dark coals that were his eyes.  _ It really was a shame that he was such a massive dick.  _ But there was something else too. It was raw and unfettered. 

Sighing, Rey relented and stood. “I’ll go to my room, but not because you told me too. I have a skype call with friends to get to.” 

Ben snorted as if he didn’t believe her, but kept his mouth shut. Which was good because if he’d said even one snarky thing she was going to move all of his fandom shit into the living room and out him as a fanboy to his coworkers at his big tech company, who were surprisingly not internet nerds like Rey or Ben (even if he pretended otherwise). Rey didn’t really care what they thought of her since they were the rival business to the one Ben’s mother ran and Rey worked for. 

Yet another reason she was finding him harder and harder to live with ever since this quarantine shit happened: he was the enemy. 

As she walked into her room, she shot Leia a text letting her know that she’d fixed the malware issues from home, closing her bedroom door with her hip. Despite the classical extravagance of the apartment, Rey had kept her bedroom plain 

Her mattress was pressed against the wall beneath the window, the plain white blankets tucked carefully up, but her brown throw blanket lay haphazardly across the expanse. Her window was a bay window and she’d lined soft white pillows on the wood. Often, she’d sit there with her laptop writing terrible fanfic with her head pressed against the pane. Other times she’d push the windows open and dangle her legs over the edge. 

It was all very thrilling until all of the books on her bookshelf above the bed threatened to fall down in the wind knocking over pop vinyls and video games. After that last incident, she’d resigned her writing to the plain desk she’d brought at Target in the corner and light a candle that smelled like wind and laundry and  _ the city.  _

It was a nice change compared to where she was from. 

But today Rey didn’t feel like sitting at her desk. She grabbed her laptop and climbed across the bed until she was on the window seat overlooking the city of New York. Towering apartment buildings and a city line painted in stars. 

She sighed happily as Rose’s round face appeared on her screen. Rey barely had time to wave before Poe and Finn popped up as well. In the background of Finn’s video, she could see Rose at her desk in their shared apartment with Christmas lights hung above her on a string. She’d attached photos to the string with clothespins. 

“You’re late,” Rose sang, spreading her arms wide. 

“I seem to recall I was the one who started the call,” Rey replied dryly as she pulled her bun out, letting her hair fall to her shoulders. 

“Yeah, but we had to wait for you.” Finn smiled, cocking an eyebrow. “Rose wouldn’t let us start without you.” 

Rose scoffed. “Of course not, if we’re going to talk about Renlo we need the QUEEN of Renlo to be here to bless us with our knowledge.” 

_ That  _ was not what they were supposed to talk about. In fact, they had planned to play video games together, but a new Renlo fanfic had been released from Rose’s favorite author today, and Rose was ready to scream about it. 

“Wait, wait, wait,” Poe interjected. “I definitely did not join this call to talk about Renlo or any Star Battles ship for that matter. I thought we were going to catch up on how we’ve been doing since the quarantine. You know, since I haven’t been able to work in weeks.” 

“You’re a pilot. Of course, you’re not working,” Finn said, a teasing light in his eyes. “But we all know you’re still being paid so quit whining.” 

“I’m tired of being cooped up!” Poe whined anyway. 

Rey laughed at Poe and the odd look on Rose’s face. But just as soon as Rey processed that Rose  _ wasn’t  _ smiling, Rose had moved onto something else. She fiddled with something on her desk. Rey squinted. 

It was her phone.

Poe stretched out across his bed, jostling the camera. “No, but really, are we here to talk about Star Battles because I still think the ending was shit. There was no closure for Bo! Like, what? I just…” He ran a hand through his curling hair, smiling incredulously at something off-camera. “That movie was shit.” 

“I don’t think it was that bad,” Finn said with a smirk. “It’s true they should’ve done more. I mean look at Vinn! They set him up to lead a  _ rebellion _ , and what? Nothing? Where did that growth go?” Finn shook his head. “Aside from that, I liked the movie. You all know my thoughts on Renlo. It was toxic.” 

“It wasn’t toxic!” Rey said louder than she meant to. 

A moment passed as she listened to her friends' flurry of answers. Rose jumped to Rey’s side, and Poe played the middle ground. On the other side of the wall, Ben knocked signaling for her to quiet down. 

He did that far too often. 

She rolled her eyes. 

“I’m just saying,” Finn held out his hands as he stood. He had a hard time sitting still. “That Renlo was bad and that is an objective fact. I’m not one of those ANTI douchebags like Leia’s snob of a son, but I am saying they are not  _ wrong.  _ He tried to kill her!” 

“He gave her the right to choose her side!” Rose snapped, turning in her chair to address Finn. 

“And he  _ loved  _ her,” Rey added. “He was consistently manipulated and rejected his entire life, and he looked at her and saw someone similar. He looked at her and chose to  _ love _ and turn away from all he’d ever known. It’s romantic! He redeemed himself and they killed him for it.”

Another knock on the wall. 

“Oh, so just because he chooses to love or whatever that equals redemption?” Finn spread his hands. On the small screen, Poe nodded along, thoughtful. “What about all those people he killed? I’m sure they’re not satisfied that he redeemed himself through love. I’m sure they don’t think he’s suddenly good.” 

“A redemption arc is different from an atonement arc!” Rey scoffed loudly, shaking her head. 

At the same time, Rose shouted, “love changes people.

A third knock on the wall. 

Rey flipped it off even though Ben couldn’t see her. 

“You know that’s a great point, babe,” Finn said slowly, smugness dripping from his tone. 

Rey turned her attention to the screen, bristling. She loved Finn and he was genuinely sweet, except for when it came to this. He wanted Vinn and Ren to be together, and he’d never let it go. When he talked about it, he could get demeaning and rude, even to Rose. 

“Love changes people, so why the Hell does Rey support Renlo? We all know how she feels about that:  _ people don’t change _ .” 

“Of course people don’t change, but Renlo is a fictional--” 

“Oh, so because it’s fiction that means change is possible?” 

Rey lurched forward, her voice rising, but as she spoke she didn’t see Finn or her friends. She saw her grandfather. “Just because I believe people can’t change in real life doesn’t mean I can’t believe they can change in  _ fiction.  _ It’s supposed to be magical and inspire hope! I have the right--” 

Her bedroom door flew open. The words died in her mouth as she took in the sight of Ben breathing hard. 

“My bosses can hear you!” he hissed. 

But Rey was already indignant from her skype call. “Then mute your mic, big shot.” 

That must’ve been the wrong thing to say, however, because Ben pressed his lips together and turned sharply. Over his shoulder, he said, “the calls over.” 

It took her a moment to process what he meant and what  _ exactly  _ he was doing. She scrambled to her feet, chasing after him. “Ben  _ fucking  _ Solo you insufferable idiot do not do what I think you’re going to do.” 

By the time she made it around the corner, he already had their router in his hand, unplugged from the wall. “I’m done with my call,” he said again, shooting her a self-satisfied smirk. “And so are you.” 

She gaped as he slid the router on top of the  _ towering  _ fridge just out of her reach. “You jerk!” She glared at him and grabbed a chair, dragging it into the kitchen. “I can still get to that.” 

“Yeah,” Ben drawled. “But you’ll look like a fool doing it.” 

And then, with a small bow, he disappeared into his room, the lock clicking behind him. 

For a moment, Rey simply stared, her breath coming hard, and then a soft chuckle escaped her, more like a release of air than laughter. She was going to make him pay. 

With all the grace she could muster, Rey flipped off the door and grabbed the router. 

An hour later she’d changed the name of their Wi-Fi and the password. 

**Kylo’s Cum Dumpster**

Password: BenSucks

As Rey stared at her masterpiece, she wondered how they’d gone from ignoring each other’s existence to childish pranks. They were both in their twenties. It had to be ridiculous.  _ It was ridiculous.  _ But being cooped up in the house had changed something for both of them. 

It made Rey realize she  _ liked  _ giving into her childish impulses even if it was just to annoy him. 


End file.
